Means for producing irregular yarns



March 8, 1955 M. cQDoLE, 2ND., ETAL 2,703,439

MEANS FOR PRODUCING IRREGULAR'YARNS Filed Nov. 30, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 25212422330 .9: MOODY C. O- pAscoeR 55 -l March 8,1955 M. c. DQLE, 2ND., mL 2,103,439

MEANS FOR PRODUCING IRREGULAR YARNS Filed Nov. 30, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Iw moooy c @OLE 2&2

United States Patentl VO MEANS FOR PRODUCING lRREGULAR-YARNS Moody C. Dole 2nd, Concord, and Pascoe Roberts, Campton, N. H., assignors, by mesne assignments, to The Firth Carpet Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 30, 1953, Serial No. 395,152

.6-Clahns. (Cl. 19106) This invention relates to a machine capable of producing a web of carded fibres in such relationship that when the fibres are subsequently condensed into roving and then spun into yarn, the yarn will not be uniform. Instead the yarn will be alternately thicker and thinner throughout its length. The invention functions in such manner that the number of fibres to be found at the cross section of the yarn at the thicker places will be greater than the number of fibres to be found at the cross section at the thinner places.

Irregular yarns have been found desirable in making certain types of cloth, particularly those cloths which are designed to imitate fabrics made of homespun yarns in which the irregularities are much greater than in machine spun yarns. Cloth produced by yarn made by our invention has an appearance impossible to obtain when made with ordinary machine spun yarns.

Attempts have been made heretofore to produce irregular yarns of the type referred to herein by machine methods, but such procedures of the prior art have not met with success commercially and the trade has therefore been denied quantity production of cloths made of irregular yarn approximating the handspun type.

One of the objects of our invention therefore is the development of a machine which will produce a web of libres of varying volume per unit length which when thereafter spun by conventional methods will result in the irregular yarn above referred to.

Another object of the invention is to utilize existing machinery with such relatively inexpensive modification that the cost of the yarn will not be appreciably increased norpwill the conventional processes applied to the carded fibres in the spinning and twisting operations thereafter need to be varied.

The production of irregular yarns made according to our invention is achieved through the use of the introduction of a doffer in a conventional carding machine in which the doffer is non-cylindrical. That is to Say, the radius of the doifer varies slightly about its circumference, so that the spacing between the wires of the doffer and the cylinder are continually varying as these two elements are in rotational cooperation to cause transfer of the carded libres from the cylinder to the doffer.

The invention is equally applicable to the conventional doffer consisting of a single doffer unit which extends the width of the cylinder and produces a web which is subdivided upon entrance into the tape condenser or to the so-called ring type doffer in which there are two units having alternately disposed circumferential areas of card clothing which are capable of removing the fibres from the cylinder in narrow webs which go directly from the doffer to the tape condensers.

These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent as the description proceeds with the aid of the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a doffer made in accord with our invention in operative relation with the cylinder. For clarity of illustration the changing radii of the doffer have been somewhat exaggerated.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the doffer shown in Fig. l drawn more accurately to scale.

Fig. 3 is a still further enlarged view of the doffer and the means of supporting the card clothing thereon, to produce a non-cylindrical surface, drawn substantially to full scale,

Fig. 4 is illustrative of the web produced by one embodiment of the invention, and

Fig. 5 is illustrative of the yarn resulting from the irregular web shown in Fig. 4.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a cylinder 2 which rotates counter-clockwise in the direction of the arrow. This cylinder is covered in the usual manner with card clothing 4 and carded fibres 6 are shown on the clothing 4- in the normal position prior to removal of a part thereof from the cylinder by the doffer.

The doffer 8 which rotates clockwise as indicated by the arrow is mounted in conventional manner on shaft 10. Its card clothing 12 however does not rest directly throughout its circumference on the doer surface 14 in the conventional manner. Instead the doffer has had applied to it a plurality of lengthwise slats or lifts 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. With these slats in place, the card clothing 12 is then `wound and secured about the outwardly deformed dofer cylinder in the usual manner. The result is that the wire surface 32 of the cylinder is noncylindrical, varying from a minimum radius where the clothing is directly against the cylinder as at 34 for example, to a maximum radius where the card clothing passes over the peak of a slat forming an outwardly projcting longitudinal zone, as at 36 on slat 18, for examp e.

The difference in radius between position 34 and position 36 in a doffer of 36" diameter is approximately /e". Obviously the maximum spacing between the cylinder wires and the dotfer wires of minimum radius must be limited to the distance at which a suitable minimum thickness of web will be produced. If spaced too far apart the web would be broken. The circumferential spacing of the slats 16, 18, 20, etc. may be regular or irregular as desired. If the spacing is regular, the irregularities in the yarn will likewise be regular. If the spacing is irregular then the resulting yarn irregularities will likewise be irregular in accord with the irregular spacing of the slats.

The dotfer 8 is adjusted with respect to cylinder 2 so that'when the high spots of the wires ofthe doffer are passing in their arc of movement closest to the wires 4 of the cylinder, there will be only a very small space therebetween, in the order of ly". In this position the high spots of the doifer will take a relatively large bite of fibres from the cylinder. Conversely, when the low spots of the doffer are adjacent the wires of the cylinder, the number of fibres removed from the cylinder will be proportionately less. That is, the fibres per unit of length of the web picked off by the doffer from the cylinder will be inversely proportional to the spacing between the doter and cylinder.

The effect of this is that the volume of libres removed from the cylinder at the point A by the doifer and carried to its fly comb 38, at the point B, will vary in amount with the minimum quantity of fibres being at the low spots 40, 42, 44, and 46, and increasing to a maximum number of fibres at the high spots 48, 50, and 52. Thus the web of fibres 54 that is being continually removed from the dofer by the fly comb 38 to move on to the tape condensers will be of varying thickness. Such web is schematically illustrated in Fig. 4 in which the web coming from the doffer at high spots 50 and 52 is represented by the thicker portions of the web at 56 and 58 while those portions of the web coming from the low spots 42, 44 and 46 are illustrated at 60, 62 and 64.

This irregular web produced by the non-cylindrical doffer results in roving of constantly changing volume, and such roving when subsequently spun and twisted produces yarn as shown in Fig. 5 having thinner and thicker portions spaced according to the circumferential spacing of the slats of the doffer 8.

Any suitable construction may be/ used in rendering the cylinder surface non-cylindrical. The doffer could be machined initially in this manner but in such case it could not readily be reconverted to conventional cylindrical form. The best practice, according to our present experience, appears to be the use of the lengthwise extending slats already referred to which may be readily secured at their ends or otherwise to the d ofcr prior to the winding of the card clothing thereon. Once the clothing is in place, the pressure of the clothing on the slats is so great that shifting of the slats thereafter be- ICC comes impossible. It is not necessary that the transversely extending slats be as wide in a circumferential direction as shown nor do they need to conform exactly to the surface of the cylinder.

If the slats are of less circumferential dimension than as shown extending only from the dotted line 70 to line 'l2 of Fig. 3, for example so that there is a short portion of the card clothing unsupported, this is of no consequence because the card clothing is sufficiently rigid in itself when under the customary tension to be able to withstand to the degree necessary such small compressive radial forces as are applied to the card clothing surface 12 as it passes the wires 4 of the cylinder.

Ordinarily the slats will extend across the face of the doffer in a direction parallel to the shaft but other alignments may be used to produce other spacing of the yarn irregularities if desired.

The varying quantity of libres remaining on the wires of the cylinder 2 as at 66 and 68 due to the changing bite of the dotfer caused by the shifting radius of the doer wires will be smoothed out and added to by the conventional cylinder workers (not shown) that cooperate with the cylinder as it rotates. As a result a uniform relatively thick group of fibres as at 74 will be continually presented to the changing diameters of the tfer. The slats 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30 may be of the same or different radial dimensions. By having the same dimension the thickness of the yarns at the points of maximum diameter will be substantially the same. By having some of the slats thicker than others it then becomes possible not only to produce an irregular yarn but also a yarn in which the irregularities themselves vary one from the other. In other words various combinations of irregularities can be produced by changing the positions of the slats circumferentially and by varying the thicknesses of the slats.

Another means whereby the surface of the dolfer can be made non-cylindrical is by first applying the card clothing 12 in the usual manner to present a cylindrical surface and then grinding the wires in a manner which wil produce the non-cylindrical surface illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. 'Ihis latter procedure is not favored however as it is too destructive of the wires, unnecessarily reducing their life.

It is our intention to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. In a carding machine, a doffer cylinder having card clothing with a surface of wires and a cylinder having card clothing with a surface of wires arranged in normal cooperating relationship therewith, said cooperating cylinder having a cylindrical surface and said doffer cylinder having at least one lengthwise zone of increased radii where y the card clothing of the dotfer cylinder raised by said zone extends outwardly beyond the adjacent ggrtions thereof and the volume of fibres transferred m said cooperating cylinder to the card clothing of said dolfer cylinder will vary inversely with the pnevailing space between the wires of the card clothing of the cooperating cylinder and the wires of the card clothing of the doffer cylinder.

2. For use in a carding machine, a doffer cylinder having thereon card clothing with a surface of wires, and said doffer cylinder having at least one outwardly projecting zone of increased radii extending parallel to the axis thereof and elevating the card clothing extending over said zone outwardly beyond the adjacent portions thereof.

, 3. For use in a carding machine, a doffer the card clothing of which has a generally cylindrical surface that is deformed to provide a plurality of circumferentially spaced zones extending parallel to the axis of the dofer, and projecting in a direction away therefrom, with the difference between the maximum radius and minimum radius of said surface being not more than 3a" and having gradual transition therebetween.

4. For use in a carding machine, a dotfer comprising a cylindrical foundation surface, a plurality of circumferentially spaced slats positioned on the said surface parallel to the axis of said dolfer, said slats projecting radially beyond said surface and having a radial dimension with respect to said doffer of not more than 9i" and card clothing wound about the foundation surface of said doter to rest in part on the cylindrical surface thereof and in part on said slats, thereby to produce a card clothing surface of changing radius.

5. For use in a carding machine, a dotfer comprising a cylindrical foundation surface, a plurality of spaced lifts extending parallel to the axis of said doffer and projecting outwardly from the cylindrical foundation surface in a direction away from the axis thereof, and card clothing wound about the doer and resting in part on the cylindrical foundation surface and in part on said lifts, thereby to produce a card clothing surface of changing radius.

6. In a carding machine, an outwardly deformed doffer cylinder having a plurality of widely and circumfcrentially spaced outwardly projecting longitudinal zones with cylindrical surfaces extending therebetween, card clothing secured around the doffer cylinder to rest in part on said cylindrical surfaces and in part on said zones, and another cylinder covered with card clothing and arranged in normal cooperating relation to the doler cylinder.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNrrED srATEs PATENTS 6,043 Parkhurst Ian. 23, 1849 85,133 Rowe Dec. 22, 1868 1,015,202 Moore et al. Jan. 16, 1912 1,286,497 Barker Dec. 3, 1918 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,967 Great Britain of 1878 127,188 Austria Mar. 10, 1932 

